In Mosul, Emmanuel Macron calls for respect for the communities of Iraq

Published on : 08/29/2021 – 07:25

After the summit in Baghdad, Emmanuel Macron continued his trip to Iraq on Sunday August 29 with a visit to sites under reconstruction in Mosul, a city devastated by Daesh, and a meeting with the leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan, spearheading the fighting against this jihadist organization .

The day before, the French president participated in a regional summit in Baghdad, largely devoted to the fight against terrorism and the impact of the capture of Kabul by the Taliban after the American withdrawal.

France will remain in Iraq “as long as Iraq asks” and “whatever the American choices”, he promised.

“Respect” for “communities”

His Sunday visit to Mosul, a Sunni city taken over from the organization of the Islamic State (IS, Daesh) in 2017 and once an important place of Christianity, will first of all be an opportunity to renew its support for Christians in the East.

He will visit the site of Notre-Dame de l’Heure, a church that Unesco is in the process of rebuilding, and will meet the Christian communities there.

France, which finances French-speaking Christian schools in the region, wants to protect the Christians of the East but also of all minorities. “This message is civilizational but also geopolitical. There will be no balance in Iraq if there is no respect for these communities”, declared the French president.

He will then visit the site of the iconic Sunni Al-Nouri Mosque, destroyed by IS. This is where Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi proclaimed in 2014 the establishment of a “caliphate” led by the Islamic State group.

Unesco is organizing a vast project to rebuild it almost identically, with its famous leaning minaret.

A first for a French president

Eager to treat all Iraqi faiths equally, the head of state visited Baghdad on Friday evening at the Shiite shrine of al-Kadhimiya, in the company of the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kazimi. Such a visit is “a first for a French president”, he stressed.

The mosque and the church that the Head of State is visiting in Mosul are among the three reconstruction projects led by Unesco and funded by the United Arab Emirates, to the tune of $ 50 million. This initiative, called “Reviving the Spirit of Mosul”, the largest in the history of the organization, also plans to rebuild Ottoman-style heritage houses, as part of a 40 million European project. euros.

“It is true that there are few Christians in Mosul, but a few are returning and the conditions must be created to revive the city, with its diversity,” explained Unesco, which has listed the old city on the indicative list of world heritage.

The exodus of Christians

The exodus of Christians from Iraq continues, however, due to discriminatory laws and pressure on young Christians which discourage families, Dominican friars from the Dominican convent in Baghdad lamented in front of journalists.

Emmanuel Macron will discuss midday with young Iraqis, including entrepreneurs and students, in the University of Mosul.

He will then spend the afternoon in Erbil, capital of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. After a visit to the French special forces at Camp Grenier, he will meet Kurdish President Netchirvan Barzani, as well as his predecessor, Massoud Barzani, whom François Hollande had met in 2014. He will finally meet with the family of a Peshmerga shot by Daesh, to pay tribute to the fights of the Kurds against ISIS.

With AFP